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IELTS Topic: FAMILY
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Tiger parenting can backfire
Original source: Good Housekeeping
Studies by Dr Su Yeong Kim, professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, have found that tiger parenting is high in one factor that’s missing in other parenting styles: shaming. “Supportive parents showed higher levels of shaming than easy-going parents, suggesting that a moderate level of shaming may be an important component of being a supportive and successful parent among Chinese Americans.”
Thus Dr Kim found that the high achievement of students with tiger parents comes at the price of higher distress.
Such pressure is unsustainable and these children can rebel later in life
So it’s not surprising then that some kids don’t take to tiger parenting at all, resulting in the opposite of what was intended. “Anytime a child — especially a teenager — loses a sense of control or a sense of agency, it has a really a dramatic effect on their motivation, which will affect their outcomes related to academics,” says Dr Christine Carter, author of Raising Happiness. “If you try to externally motivate them with threats or bribes or any controlling parenting style, their self-motivation will falter.”
“These children can also experience the anxiety and other downsides of a high-stress environment,” says educator and author Dr Jenny Rankin. “Such pressure is unsustainable, and these children can rebel later in life — giving up healthy goals entirely — when they reach an age where independence is possible.”
Schoolchildren under parental pressure to succeed can be driven to frequent tears and feelings of anxiety.
Source: Drawnhy/ Shutterstock